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PM calls for urgent action to deal with drought, saltwater intrusion
PM calls for urgent action to deal with drought, saltwater intrusion
22/5/20
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked
authorities in the central and Central Highlands regions to take action to deal
with the prolonged heat wave, drought and saltwater intrusion.
The south central and Central Highland regions have witnessed a sharp decline in rainfall since the beginning of this year compared with the average. The water level in many irrigation and hydropower reservoirs have dropped to 20-60 percent of their designed capacity. Many small ones have even dried up. Drought and severe water shortage have occurred in some localities.
The Vietnam Meteorological and Hydrological Administration has forecast that the heat will last until the end of August while water flow in the rivers will continue to decrease.
It has also predicted the possibility of widespread drought and water scarcity, which will seriously affect the production activities and lives of local residents, particularly south central coastal provinces.
To cope with the situation, PM Phuc told ministries, sectors and localities to take urgent measures to deal with it.
The PM asked the People’s Committees of Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan to dredge irrigation systems, canals, ponds and wells or build makeshift dams to store water.
Water supply project should be sped up and pumping stations should be installed to ensure there would be enough water for local residents, schools, hospitals and health facilities.
A campaign should be launched to guide people on storing water and using it effectively.
Localities were requested to instruct relevant agencies to assess the water maintained at irrigation and hydropower reservoirs to have appropriate plans for water usage. Priority should be given to supplying water for people’s daily lives, animal husbandry and industrial crop cultivation of perennial trees.
Localities were supposed to restructure cultivation and adjust crops based on water sources and capacity.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) was assigned to direct and support localities in carrying out measures against drought and saline intrusion.
The ministry was also asked to work with the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) and Vietnam Electricity (EVN), hydropower plants and localities in unifying plans to regulate water at reservoirs on each river basin to supplement water for downstream, serving agricultural production and people’s daily lives.
The MONRE was directed to monitor the weather, increase forecasts and provide timely information on drought and salt water intrusion to serve production and proactively take measures to prevent and combat drought, water shortage and saltwater intrusion.
The PM requested the MoIT to instruct the EVN to ensure the supply of electricity for production and local residents and coordinate with media agencies to raise awareness on energy saving, especially in the dry season.
The Ministry of Finance was authorised to coordinate with the MARD in summing up localities’ request for support relating to drought water shortage and saltwater intrusion prevention and combat effort, and submit to the Prime Minister.
The Ministry of Information and Communications, Voice of Vietnam, Vietnam Television, Vietnam News Agency and other media agencies were asked to strengthen campaigns to raise awareness on water and energy saving in response to drought and water shortage which might occur more often./.
The south central and Central Highland regions have witnessed a sharp decline in rainfall since the beginning of this year compared with the average. The water level in many irrigation and hydropower reservoirs have dropped to 20-60 percent of their designed capacity. Many small ones have even dried up. Drought and severe water shortage have occurred in some localities.
The Vietnam Meteorological and Hydrological Administration has forecast that the heat will last until the end of August while water flow in the rivers will continue to decrease.
It has also predicted the possibility of widespread drought and water scarcity, which will seriously affect the production activities and lives of local residents, particularly south central coastal provinces.
To cope with the situation, PM Phuc told ministries, sectors and localities to take urgent measures to deal with it.
The PM asked the People’s Committees of Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan to dredge irrigation systems, canals, ponds and wells or build makeshift dams to store water.
Water supply project should be sped up and pumping stations should be installed to ensure there would be enough water for local residents, schools, hospitals and health facilities.
A campaign should be launched to guide people on storing water and using it effectively.
Localities were requested to instruct relevant agencies to assess the water maintained at irrigation and hydropower reservoirs to have appropriate plans for water usage. Priority should be given to supplying water for people’s daily lives, animal husbandry and industrial crop cultivation of perennial trees.
Localities were supposed to restructure cultivation and adjust crops based on water sources and capacity.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) was assigned to direct and support localities in carrying out measures against drought and saline intrusion.
The ministry was also asked to work with the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) and Vietnam Electricity (EVN), hydropower plants and localities in unifying plans to regulate water at reservoirs on each river basin to supplement water for downstream, serving agricultural production and people’s daily lives.
The MONRE was directed to monitor the weather, increase forecasts and provide timely information on drought and salt water intrusion to serve production and proactively take measures to prevent and combat drought, water shortage and saltwater intrusion.
The PM requested the MoIT to instruct the EVN to ensure the supply of electricity for production and local residents and coordinate with media agencies to raise awareness on energy saving, especially in the dry season.
The Ministry of Finance was authorised to coordinate with the MARD in summing up localities’ request for support relating to drought water shortage and saltwater intrusion prevention and combat effort, and submit to the Prime Minister.
The Ministry of Information and Communications, Voice of Vietnam, Vietnam Television, Vietnam News Agency and other media agencies were asked to strengthen campaigns to raise awareness on water and energy saving in response to drought and water shortage which might occur more often./.
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All comments [ 15 ]
The Mekong Delta provinces which have been hit by severe drought this year, needs more fresh water, but can only supply about 50 percent of demand from its 35 fresh water treatment plants and stations.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked sectors and localities to devise plans coping with each kind of natural disasters.
Facing serious subsidence along the dyke network, provincial authorities have ordered that urgent projects dealing with the phenomenon be accelerated before the wet season arrives and that the construction of natural disaster mitigation facilities be sped up.
The effects of adverse weather, especially extreme drought, have caused erosion and subsidence along the dyke network in recent years, triggering the declaration of a state of emergency for some sections so an urgent response can be made.
Last year, the Government spent more than 10.3 trillion VND (447 million USD) from the central budget and other sources to support post-disaster recovery.
More than half of the Mekong Delta will disappear under sea level in the next two generations if no action is taken now, research has found.
The results of the five-year-long 'Rise and Fall' research project funded by the Netherlands government announced recently shed light on the linkages between land subsidence, groundwater extraction and saline intrusion in the Mekong Delta, locally known as the Cuu Long Delta, while giving out a red alert over the future of Vietnam’s largest rice production area.
The delta is home to more than 17 million people, most of whom are farmers who grow nearly 60 per cent of the country's rice and 40 percent of the country’s aquaculture products.
Rapid economic development in the region since the 1990s led to a drastic increase of groundwater extraction for agriculture, aquaculture and living activities, researchers from Utrecht University and Deltares Institute found.
Information technology (IT) has been applied in disaster mitigation and response since 2019, initially in forecasting, and the application is to be expanded even further.
The researchers also made projections of the sinking rate of the delta taking into account subsidence induced by groundwater extraction and rising sea levels due to climate change.
The upgrading and construction of a sea dyke and a dam outside the mangrove forests to prevent saltwater intrusion has contributed to water shortage.
If groundwater usage keeps growing at 2 percent per year, the outlook will be at the bleakest as a number of areas will stay under sea level by less than 10 years from now while the southern half and beyond will be engulfed by seawater by 2080.
In other scenarios which see no increase in the groundwater extraction, the percentage of land falling under sea level will subsequently decrease. Nearly 50 percent of the delta will sink below sea level in case of stable extraction and only a third if the water use was reduced by 75 percent.
For the first time in history, whirlwinds, thunderstorms, and hail storms occurred on the first day of the lunar year in late January and in 31 localities afterwards, even in places that had never experienced such incidents in the past.
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